Languages Of Pakistan

Languages of Pakistan:

Pakistan is a multi-lingual country , Pakistan has nine recognized languages and 90 other minor languages. The two official languages are : Urdu,English, And the four provincial languages are, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and  Balochi and three major regional languages are Kashmiri, hindko and Siraiki,

Some Philologists say that there are over 300 dialects and languages spoken in the country today and each is distinctly differently from the other. Most of the languages of Pakistan belong to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family.
Urdu  is the national language , lingua franca  and one of two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English).

The name Urdu is a short form of 'Zuban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla'  i.e. language of the exalted city. In India the term Urdu, although it means 'military camp' in  Turkish, was used for the capital city of the king. In other words, the language of the king's capital was a Persianized form of the language usually called Hindi. This was shortened to 'Urdu' and this term was used for the first time in written records by the poet Mushafi in 1780  (Rahman 2011: 49).

 The British called this language 'Hindustani' and wrote it in both the Perso-Arabic and the Devanagari script. It is widely used, both formally and informally, for personal letters as well as public literature, in the literary sphere and in the popular media. It is a required subject of study in all primary and secondary schools. It is the first language of most  Muhajirs  (Muslim refugees who fled from different parts of India after independence of Pakistan in 1947), who form nearly 8% of Pakistan's population, and is an acquired language. 

As Pakistan's national language, Urdu has been promoted to promote national unity. It is written with a modified form of the Perso-Arabic alphabet—usually in Nastaliq script—and its basic Hindustani vocabulary has been enriched by words from Persian, Arabic, Turkic ,Hindi, sindhi and some othe local languages  and English. Urdu has drawn inspiration from Persian literature and has now an enormous stock of words from that language.

Languages spoken in Pakistan  in percentage :

                       Urdu 8% English (both official);  Punjabi 48%,  Sindhi 12%,  Siraiki (a Punjabi variant) 10%,  Pashtu 8%,  Balochi 3%,  Hindko 2%,  Brahui 1%,  Burushaski, and others 8%

Punjabi

Punjabi  is spoken as a first language by more than 48% of Pakistanis, mostly in Punjab. The exact numbers of Punjabi speakers in Pakistan is difficult to ascertain since there are many dialects, such as Saraiki,  which some regard as part of Punjabi and others regard as a separate language

 

Sindhi

Sindhi is spoken as a first language by 12% of Pakistanis, mostly in Sind, parts of Balochistan, Southern Punjab and Balochistan. It has a rich literature and is taught in schools also.

Balochi

Balochi  is spoken as a first language by about 3% of Pakistanis, mostly in Balochistan province. It is believed that the language was brought to its present location in a series of migrations from the Kurdistan region of northeastern Iraq and northwestern Iran.

Pashto

Pashto is spoken as a first language by 8% of Pakistanis, mainly in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas(FATA) and in northern Balochistan . Karachi is one of the biggest Pashto speaking city in the world although the Pashto speakers constitute only about 25% of the city's population

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